Secure Device Servers

While today’s sophisticated control systems are habitually connected to a broadband network infrastructure, most device servers are only capable of coupling 10- to 20-year-old legacy serial devices (meters, SCADA appliances, PLCs and sensors) onto an IP network. They can’t connect to modern network devices and don’t provide strong security, says the vendor. “Modern machines have sophisticated embedded Windows or Linux operating systems, and they require sophisticated management tools that have graphical console management as well as text capabilities,” says Bob Waldie, CEO and chairman at the vendor. “The SD4000 is the only solution that offers secure local and remote VNC, Remote Desktop, HTTP and telnet access over the network or serial lines. Control engineers who use old serial-to-Ethernet device server products that lack rigorous authentication, encryption and tunneling unnecessarily put their enterprise security at risk.”